21 Eyl 2026 18:01 -
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 237
Why Do New Discernments Give Us a Familiar Feeling?
New discernments are seemingly new, but when we examine the way they are expressed, we see that the words are the same familiar words. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we learn that all of reality consists of only the original ten Sefirot. There is nothing beyond that. The worlds and the souls are within them. Everything exists in the ten Sefirot. The difference lies in the way these new discernments cause us to feel those ten Sefirot, which is different and deeper. The depth of their perception consists of 125 degrees.
We are still before degree zero of attainment. Also, even before we begin to attain the ten Sefirot, before the barrier, there are steps and discernments. However, in principle, the picture is the same, as we learn in Kabbalah, that all the worlds are built according to the same pattern: five Partzufim and ten Sefirot. That is, everything is the same, and we repeat the same thing. A three- or four-year-old child learning to read the Torah and a Kabbalist such as Rabbi Shimon read the same Torah, but each understands different layers of it.
What does a child reading the Torah say to his or her mother? “Mom, look, Abraham wanted to kill Isaac.” That is how he understood the Torah. A Kabbalist, however, knows the correction that the Torah describes in the case of Abraham and Isaac, a correction entirely above this world, and attains it, sees it through spiritual forces, through an eternal vision. Yet the expression is in the same letters and words.
When we begin to study, we discover that we see new things in the study material each time. Suppose students are sitting in a lesson and reading an article with their Kabbalist teacher. Afterward, one of the students asks the teacher about the meaning of the text. How does the Kabbalist know something beyond what they know? It is because the Kabbalist sees additional depths in the article that are hidden from the students’ eyes. The Kabbalist cannot convey to the student what the Kabbalist feels, but explains what he sees in different words.
For the students, the article is revealed only to a certain depth. For the Kabbalist, it reveals deeper layers, and there are those to whom nothing will be revealed. They will read the article and there will be no response in their hearts because they still have no spiritual vessel. Among the students, such a vessel is already beginning to form. So what is the difference between the student and the Kabbalist? The difference is that when the Kabbalist explains something to the student, he gives him a little illumination from the depth in which he himself resides, bringing it up to the level where the student is. In other words, the Kabbalist adds additional light of his own to the surrounding light that the student awakens during the study.
A group can also add light. In a group, each person understands according to a certain depth, greater than that of a person who does not study the wisdom of Kabbalah. Therefore, when they study together with the intention of sharing everything with each other, all of their surrounding lights unite and act upon everyone. From this, we can understand what a powerful amplifier of spiritual force the group is.
It does not matter that there are differences in knowledge among the people in the group, nor does it matter if there is a Kabbalist among them and everyone else knows less than the Kabbalist. The differences stem from the fact that each person has a unique character and a unique root of the soul. Yet even the Kabbalist benefits from this integration and receives an addition from it. There are things that the Kabbalist will be unable to understand without certain friends in the group, each of whom brings something uniquely their own.
Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 236
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 235
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 234